Resume Writing Services – Pros and Cons

Should you use a resume writing service for your resume? Is this right for you? Below are some pros and cons to consider.

Pros

• Correct English: It’s always good to get another person to read your resume and make sure it’s understandable and has no grammatical or spelling mistakes. A resume writer can do this. Of course, a friend can do this too.
• Fresh Perspective: A good resume writer can give you a new perspective. Instead of incrementally enhancing your resume a bit at a time, a good writer can give you quite a different version from your current one.
• Unattached marketer on your behalf: We sometimes can be overly modest on our accomplishments or experience. A good writer can understand the job opportunity you want to apply and apply emphasis or better wording around your experience that best suits the opportunity.
• Dedicated but discreet help: Job search is a personal thing and sometimes it’s hard to ask friends for feedback or ask them to help. Hiring a writer ensures you can get someone to help while being kept confidential.

Cons

• It’s difficult to find a good writer: How will you separate the “lemons” from the truly exceptional resume writing services? Every resume writing service on the web looks similar. I haven’t found many unbiased rating websites that tell you who’s good, who’s not, and what to watch out for. Testimonials are no longer good enough as they can be made up or can be from people that are in completely different situations than you. I’ve seen many state that they are a CPRW – Certified Professional Resume Writer. The certification costs $175 to take and provides at least some credibility. It’s unclear how much that will help you in your particular situation.
• Potential disconnect between your resume and interview: If your resume is completely rewritten, you need to make sure you understand exactly what it says and how it describes you. The worst thing you can do is get an interview with a great resume and not get the job because you sound nothing like your resume in the interview.
• Can be expensive: Typical resume writing services are between $100 to $300. This can be per job opportunity or type since you should tailor your resume for each job opportunity because relevance maximizes your chances at success. Can you afford it if you’re out of work? What if it doesn’t help?
• Outsource a key job search skill: Once you start outsourcing resume writing to a third party, you may need to do it every time you search for a job. You’re no longer developing resume writing skills yourself. Is this okay with you? As the old saying goes – Do you want to have someone buy the fish for you one time or teach you how to fish for the rest of your life?

I’m not writing this to advocate using a resume writing service or discourage it. Whatever you decide is okay as long as you understand the benefits and the risks associated with it.